Feeling Alienated: What to Do When It Feels
There is No One to Turn To
by www.Sedona.com
Rod Blagojevich is at the heart of one of the biggest scandals to face U.S. politics in some time, and is most certainly feeling alienated from those around him -- to a degree most people will never experience. Whether or not he “deserved it” aside, what would it be like to be in his shoes (or in the shoes of any other celebrity or politician embroiled in a very public scandal)?
In the case of public figures, it may actually be that a large number of people have “turned against” them or are keeping their distance. But for the rest of us, this sense of alienation, though not as widespread on a public level, can still feel just as severe.
Feeling alienated invokes powerful feelings of isolation and loneliness. It can stem from many different circumstances, such as not getting along with your co-workers, experiencing a death in your family, or undergoing any type of tragedy. You can also experience alienation if you are engaging in behaviors that don’t mesh with your values, such as working in a corporate setting when you’d rather be a poet.
Even entire groups of people can feel alienated from society as a whole because of their ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.
Unfortunately, once feelings of estrangement begin, you may find they linger and stick with you, until no matter what course you take in life you still don’t feel like you fit in, or like you’re fully loved. This is why, if you’re feeling alienated, it’s important to realize that you can change things for the better.
How to Stop Feeling Alienated
“When you feel alienated you make it so,” says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and director of training of Sedona Training Associates. “The more alienated you feel the more you reinforce and feed that feeling and all actions that flow from that feeling.”
Whether you realize it consciously or not, your thoughts and feelings directly influence and even dictate your actions. So the more you focus on the feelings of hostility, isolation or unfriendliness in your life, the more they will be a part of your reality. On the flip side, you can instead choose to let those feelings go using a simple but powerful tool called The Sedona Method.
“If you're feeling alienated, like an outcast or like you have no one to turn to, remember it's just a feeling. If you release the feeling of being alone you'll discover that you are never alone; there is always support,” Dwoskin says. “Sometimes support appears to come from outside, but it is always available from inside.”
So no matter what circumstances are causing you to feel alienated, if you release this feeling the experience itself will also disappear. At the same time, the more you involve other people in your life -- in both the good times and bad -- the easier it will be for you to feel like you’re a part of something.
“You can allow yourself to reach out to others and find small ways to support them,” Dwoskin says. “This may seem backwards, however the more you reach out to support your fellow man or woman, the less isolated you feel. Ultimately, as long as you believe you're a separate individual there will always be some feeling of loneliness or isolation. The best way to deal with this is to discover the truth of who you are, and realize that you are not separate from those around you.” | 
